Director: Ishmael Bernal, Emmanuel Horlaza, Peque Gallaga
Year: 1984
Country: Philippines
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Three major forces in Philippine horror history create a segment on local or folkloric horror in unrelated tales.
Review:
Baso-Arriving at a friend's house, three friends decide to pass the time playing a game known as Spirit of the Glass which puts them in contact with a trio of spirits. Realizing a doomed love triangle is repeating itself, they try to stop the actions that originally killed the group from harming each other. Overall, this was quite an enjoyable opener. The fact that it plays with familiar tropes here by featuring the localized version of the Ouija Board makes an identifiable connection to dive into the rest of the story. As the wild sequence displays all the usual attributes from the area around them being affected to the game being obviously manipulated by outside forces with the pieces shown moving about, this here is a fine start to the romantic payoff. The story isn't that interesting or impressive during the flashback moments showing the original characters before the possession as the Independence War-set scenes add no horror to the proceedings. However, it picks up again in the finale to offer some nice visuals through their brawl across the different time zones. The replication of their events is quite a cliche but is not all too bad of a sequence the way it plays out which makes this a nice introduction piece, and while it's not necessarily the fastest-paced entry for an anthology opener this was enjoyable nonetheless.
Pridyider-Moving into a new house, a series of strange events and happenings around the central refrigerator causes a teen to believe the object is cursed. As the device starts haunting the family in increasingly deadly manners, they try to stop its evil influence from affecting the family. This was an absolutely spectacular entry. Although the premise might not really support it, there's some absolutely chilling atmosphere derived from the titular device which manages to include a host of shocking flash-jumps to the contents within. From bloodied appendages appearing on the shelves to raspy demonic growling emanating inside and even having the controls move around on their own, this segment generates a fine atmosphere that's all the more chilling once the events start picking up. Taking the time to establish the machines' use and importance to the family, that familiarity and prominence give way to several chilling attacks that are quite frightening coming from an immobile refrigerator. Despite a languid pace through the investigation scenes that make this longer than it needs to be, this was a really enjoyable segment.
Manananggal-Traveling to his girlfriends' house, a young man hoping to win her over inadvertently stumbles onto the fact that she's a vicious, winged creature preying on the community. Getting back to the safety of his house, he and the rest of the family must fend off the creatures' attacks. Frankly, this was an enjoyable if slightly flawed finale. When this one works, it's due to the exploitation of the forest setting as there are some utterly chilling and creepy settings that really sell the isolation of their location. The forest around them is rife with thick, densely layered underbrush that's impossible to look deep, which means the scenes of the unearthly roaring and screeches throughout here are just utterly terrifying. Hearing those noises emanate from the deep recesses of the jungle is a truly terrifying setup and the reveal works nicely with that. The last half, which is a series of attacks by the deformed creature has some great moments as it's tearing into the house forcing them to defend themselves and there are some fine attacks here with that. The only real issue is the opening song he tries to sing to win her over, which is a real momentum-killer to start this off with a down-beat intro, but overall it ends this one on an incredibly high note.
Overview: ****/5
Overall, this emerges as one of the finest and most underrated anthologies in the scene. It's got minor flaws in each entry, but there's so much to like in the film as a whole that this one is assuredly recommended viewing for anyone looking to tackle an obscure and worthwhile anthology. Those not fond of the format should at least tackle one of the segments to decide to investigate further.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
Comments
Post a Comment